A film about an illiterate drug dealer turned poet is the first film in a spring documentary film series.
The Center of Interpersonal Studies Through Film and Literature will present its 18th annual spring documentary series. The first film will be screened 2 p.m. Sunday in the Kerr-McGee auditorium in Minders School of Business. Each year the series relates to the poet featured by the center earlier in the year. The poet this year was Marie Howe.
“She see’s all things and objects in ways we would not but with a sort of spiritual richness,” said Harbour Winn, director of the Center.
The title of this year’s series is “Thing and Spirit Both” and focuses on three artists, Jimmy Santiago Bacca, Steve James and Wim Wenders.
“These are people who look at life and see dimensions the normal eye would not,” Winn said.
The first of the three films is titled A Place to Stand and is based on the memoir of Jimmy Santiago Bacca. Baca was an illiterate thief and drug dealer raised in an orphanage in New Mexico when he was sentenced to five years in the Arizona State Prison. While serving his time in prison Baca taught himself how to read and write through poetry and became a nationally recognized poet while he was behind bars.
“I will definitely attend this film screening, I’m looking forward to seeing a direct translation of his life and efforts, said Matthew Hester, film junior. “I’ve heard so much about him it will be interesting to see his life as a portrait of reality on film.”
Baca was the featured poet in 2008 and came to OCU to speak.
“He decided to live constructively, and every time he was contracted to speak-like at OCU- he would do a workshop in a prison,” said Winn.
When he visited OCU he also presented a workshop at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, a woman’s prison. OCU English and film majors joined him on the trip to record the workshop.
“It was an absolutely incredible experience,” Winn said. “After he spoke to them they demanded that he come back and speak again,” said Winn.
Baca returned to the prison four more times, but when he was not there OCU Beth Robinson professor of English met with the women for three years and published a book of their collected poems.
All screenings are free for students to attend.
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